Help offset server costs by donating. This is totally optional. Any overages will go to library fines or new books.
RichardAbbott
About
- Username
- RichardAbbott
- Joined
- Visits
- 6,170
- Last Active
- Roles
- Member, Administrator, Moderator
- Games I like
- Sundry, mostly board
- Books I like
- Science fiction, fantasy, some historical fiction
Comments
-
It was quite refreshing to have centrally important characters who had faith which was considered and recognised doubt and difficulty rather than being blind fanaticism. Karlsen in particular exhibits this, and the dimension of the final story Face …
-
Broadly speaking I preferred the longer stories to the shorter ones (hence Stone Place in particular) but that's largely because of a preference for more development than can possibly happen within a short story. Of the others, I particularly liked …
-
On the whole yes, as they covered what appears to be a large fraction of the Earth-Berserker war (though omitting both the initial encounter and the final resolution). The different episodes included meshed well in terms of credible progress and dev…
-
Whichever way we break it up, having an interim discussion at the end of November sounds good
-
On the assumption that the second half of December might well be busy with other stuff, maybe option 3 is better (read the first three books)?
-
(Quote) Ah yes you're quite right, I'd forgotten they started that early. Yes, I. Third Historian, have touched living minds, Earth minds, so deadly cool that for a while they could see war as a game. The first decades of the berserker war they wer…
-
(Quote) Most of them no, but a few (eg Sign of the Wolf) have a short italicised paragraph written by The Third Historian of the Carmpan Race which basically sets the scene and if necessary fills in some background omitted between stories where the …
-
Seems great to me - I very rapidly drop any participation in FB when time presses, and have long since stopped using Twitter for anything discursive. But this looks at first sight like a Good Thing and so thanks for setting it up.
-
(Quote) From first impressions it seems easy and fun nattering with others though I'm sure I'm not really getting the proper purpose of it - currently it feels a bit like Twitter of (dare I say it) FB, though without the nastiness one encounters so …
-
(Quote) I agree, this discussion has been very stimulating, not least because of your own addition. I don't think - for the purposes of this novel, at least - that the authenticity of the painting matters. Being perhaps more radical, I don't think i…
-
Very cool, thanks for posting those
-
(Quote) My Kindle version doesn't have that, but goes straight into Without a Thought after the standard list of where and when the stories were first published
-
Hi all, as discussion continues for The Man who Fell to Earth, here's a quick reminder that October's read is Berserker, by Fred Saberhagen, selected by @Apocryphal who wil be setting out discussion starters around the end of the month.
-
(Quote) I'm sold :)
-
All this brings us back to another theme we have touched on already, namely what the novel is about on a metaphorical level. It's easy with today's eyes to see it as an ecological crisis story, with the central disaster of Icarus being ignored as ev…
-
(Quote) That's why I liked him :)
-
(Quote) That's really helpful, thanks. So if I'm reading this right, it's not really Icarus who is in focus, but the widespread disinterest in Icarus. Rather sobering, really... for him it was not an important failure
-
> @BarnerCobblewood said: > Hi, Sorry to be late. Was away visiting my mother. > > I thought the story and all three characters were compelling. Thought it was a critical novel. It was interesting to for to think about how the story …
-
That's an aspect of the book that has a lot of contemporary resonance - several notable recent politicians have sort to appeal to these unpublicised parts of society, claiming that they are the "real" America / UK / wherever, in contrast t…
-
> @Apocryphal said: > I think the reaction of various people on earth to this alien is interesting. Some guess he’s an alien, but are willing to go along with him because he’s a nice guy (and can make them rich?) Even the government is conten…
-
Could you invert the plot and have PCs working for an organisation in which they have to uncover the identity of the head? It's probably been done a gazillion times with Facebook and all
-
I can't remember many details of the film, but I do remember Bowie in it as captivating the scenes that he was in. Like @clash_bowley I saw the film first, but on reading the novel I think Bowie has exactly the right blend of charisma and other-worl…
-
It made me wonder, if Newton is Icarus (and he surely is) then who is Daedalus? That's an area that gets explored a little more in the recent streamed series, but not so much (I think) here in the original novel. And - perhaps pushing the analogy to…
-
I agree, the novel still holds its own. I think this is partly because Tevis never tries to describe Newton's home (and so far as I recall never actually commits to Mars as an author, though some of the characters certainly do). I also think it's be…
-
Early on I thought that the copyright lawyer Farnsworth was going to be a min character, but he seemed to fade out quite quickly. Otherwise I was convinced. With hindsight I do agree with @NeilNjae that Betty Jo seemed an odd choice, but suppose sh…
-
Done - now's the time to update notification prefs!
-
Cool, I'll set it up (and buy the book as well :) )
-
So... what do we all think? The current apparent choices are: 1) @NeilNjae leads Babel in just one month (November) with me in December and @BarnerCobblewood in January (unless @WildCard wants to leap in) 2) @NeilNjae leads Babel over two months (…
-
(Quote) Sorry @NeilNjae I posted at the same time as you so missed your comment
-
If there are no objections I'll set up November's area